RE: Florida to California trip help
Your phrase "no time restrictions" opens up a wonderful travel experience. Nothing says you have to burn up the miles every day. Successive days of a hundred or fewer miles are entirely possible for you. And if you find a nice place you can lay over for a few days with no pressure to move on.
If you are heading west this time of year you will of course pretty much have to follow the Gulf Coast to stay with the good weather.
In the panhandle of Florida be sure to check out Apalachicola if you aren't already familiar with the town. They have some great camping in that area and a nice restaurant right on the water there in town.
You can follow the coast clear over to Pensacola west of there but some people prefer to bail because of the congestion and make better time going north a ways and then west. Your call on that obviously. And this may all be local information for you so excuse me on that if so.
When you get over into Louisiana think about taking route 82 South out of Abbeville (Cajun country) in a big loop down through a real isolated area through Pecan Island over to Sabine Pass at Port Arthur, Texas. It's a great drive though isolated swamp land at near sea level. At Cameron you have to take a ferry across a narrow water channel. Cost is practically nothing though.
Texas has a great state park system and if you would plan on spending time visiting them you might want to check into a yearly day pass so you don't get charge that entry fee at every park you visit. You still pay for the camping though.
In the Houston area you might want to check out the Johnson Space Center where the original control room for the moon missions still exists. No longer used of course.
And be sure to stop by San Antonio and visit the Alamo and their Riverwalk.
Further west there is the Big Bend Park and near there is also Fort Davis up in a little mountain area that has a great state campground. Many of the buildings from that old Indian War era Army post are still standing.
And if you're into some strange things also in that area is the famous Marfa lights. Maybe if you're lucky going through there you could see them some night.
Near El Paso is White Sands National Monument which is well worth checking out. It's quite an impressive place.
I hope this gives you a few ideas to get started. Good traveling.

RE: RV Manufacturer versus Tire Company air pressure settings
Let's try this again.
That tire pressure plate on your door only applies to a brand new rig straight out of the factory on day one with original tires. After that in later years it is likely meaningless.
For the vast number of older rigs running after market tires it simple can not be trusted.
But if in fact that door plate remains true for ever and ever then why not just tell any poster asking about tire pressures to just go look at their door plate.
If it's that simple then why is it that threads about tire pressure go on and on for page after page all the time.
Doesn't it always come down to "weigh each wheel" etc, etc.
Nobody ever says "go look at your door plate."
For all those out there in a rage that I suggest not to rely on those door plates I sure hope to never catch any of you looking at a tire pressure chart. On second though, why are they even published.
Regarding my tire pressures, fully loaded I run right at GAWR and I increase the Bridgestone recommendations by 5 or 10 psi as a buffer. And yes my door plate says 65 psi front and rear. And I am running the original rims and tire size. My Bridgestone chart does not even start until 70 psi.

RE: RV Manufacturer versus Tire Company air pressure settings
Those plaques the RV manufactures put on vehicles spelling out tire pressures are absolutely dangerous. But I think they are required by the feds.
With not a clue in the world of what tires you are running on your rig how could they possibly be able to tell you what air pressures to run with.
How many rigs are out there right now running down the road with severely under inflated tires because somebody use those stupid plaque recommendations?
Perhaps a little work with a hammer and chisel might save some lives.I call BS on these statements.
I suggest you retract them as what you are saying is incorrect, misleading and potentially dangerous!
The tire placard pressures stated by the Manufacturer are those required for the tires to run with axle loads at their maximum. Tires at the pressures on that placard are NOT "severely underinflated" unless the vehicle is also overloaded. You are right in that "they are required by the Feds". The Feds also require that the pressures are as I have stated.
Turning your statement around, the tire manufacturers have no idea what weight the tires will be carrying, so how can they know what pressure you should run?
(They provide load/inflation charts for that purpose. The numbers on the tire label will be very close to those chart numbers for the weight being carried)
(In the interests of full disclosure, those labels used to be part of my job at one of the "Big 3" so I do know what I am talking about!)
I stand by my posting.
Right now my door plate recommends 65 psi front and rear but I have to run 95 psi front and rear per Bridgestone for my weight. And I'm not overloaded.
And in every past post I can remember from others they see the exact same thing. A very low recommendation of what tire pressure to run.
May I just refer back to the OP today. How far down the road would he get running those door post pressures?
On edit: assuming this isn't a brand new rig straight out of the factory.

RE: RV Manufacturer versus Tire Company air pressure settings
Those plaques the RV manufactures put on vehicles spelling out tire pressures are absolutely dangerous. But I think they are required by the feds.
With not a clue in the world of what tires you are running on your rig how could they possibly be able to tell you what air pressures to run with.
How many rigs are out there right now running down the road with severely under inflated tires because somebody use those stupid plaque recommendations?
Perhaps a little work with a hammer and chisel might save some lives.

RE: Oceanside CA to Borrego Springs
X2 on Scripts Poway Parkway being the easiest.
Now North of Santa Ysabel on 79 you turn R onto S2 (San Felipe Road).
Then a few miles down the road turn L onto S22 to Borrego Springs. Do not miss that turn and continue on down to 78.
That turn onto S22 will take you thru Ranchita down the Montezuma Grade into Borrego Springs.
(On edit) I just noticed that you have previously gone into Borrego across Yaqui Pass on S3. That's a tough way in. On some of the curves you are out into the downhill traffic lane on a very narrow road.
RV parks in Borrego Springs recommend the Montezuma Grade as a preferred way in for those coming from the west. It's hardly more than an interstate highway grade. And with a beautiful view of the valley most of the way down.

RE: Trip Out West
If by "desert" your family means "the wide open spaces out west" then there is lots of boondocking to be done at higher altitudes where it would be much cooler.
For example, Flagstaff is over 7000 feet. You could think of that as being high desert - which it is.
Much of the country you will pass thru out west sits high up like that. And things out west are far, far apart. Sketch out some distances when doing your trip planning and you'll see what I mean.

RE: Streets and Trips
I believe the licensing terms allow it to be on a desktop and also a laptop. That might help.
Otherwise, with everybody seemingly dropping it there should be tons of licenses available. But how do you somehow "transfer" it from their computer(s) to yours? That might not be easy.

RE: Kindle Convert
I think some issues are being missed here. The Amazon Kindle software would be a direct scan into the Kindle format. It should go real well and be nice and clean.
Those reviews of the Kindle software are from people trying to convert existing PDF files they already have into the Kindle format. And obviously it is not working very well.
Now if you go to the free software people are recommending (Calibre) and read a little bit you will see that they say PDF is about the worst possible format for their software to attempt to convert to something else. It is about number 15 on their list of preferred formats to convert. So it is no wonder that Kindle also has a problem trying to convert PDFs.
I think for somebody with old books available only in hard copy the Kindle app might work quite well to get it into electronic format.
Obviously lots of pamphlets and newer guide books these days are available as electronic but for those precious older guide books that we might have the Kindle app or perhaps some free app may do the job for you.

RE: Adventure and Difficult Roads - Way over used terms
What you are dealing with is the comfort level of the individual driver on any road.
Some people will come across 550 to Silverton and think it was no big deal. Others will pull off at the first wide spot and heave their guts out. How do you overcome that gap any time you attempt to recommend what a road is like.
Some people are exhausted after 250 miles on an interstate in light traffic and others would be ready to go another 250 and enjoy the hell out of it.
It's all about the driver- not the road.

Kindle Convert
Amazon has some new software you can download to your pc allowing you to convert any book to the kindle format via scanning. That would be great for travel guides taking up a lot of space. Apparently it then provides for all the standard kindle features such is text resizing and such. It's $19 on an introductory deal right now down from normal 49 bucks.
Initial reviews for the software don't look real good but perhaps they're pushing the limits of it with what they want to do. I would wonder if those problems are not related to whatever PDF conversion software they had previously used.
I suspect an original conversation from your scanner to the Amazon software would work quite well.
I could not do a link from my tablet but if you go to Amazon and type in Kindle convert in the search box it will pop up.

RE: San Diego to Desert Hot Srings
That is the cross country route but there is some school of thought that it is better to stay on 215 up to Moreno Valley and pick up 60 over to Banning.
Some though don't like 60 because it has some rolling up and down grades and quite a bit of truck traffic.

RE: New Snow Birds Looking For Help
With your desire to go somewhere warm and also perhaps also to do a cruise I think Florida is your best bet since you start from Nashville.
Just arbitrarily picking Orlando as a base in Florida and cruising out of Port Canaveral your total miles round trip would be 1500 with about $300 for fuel.
That assumes you get 10 miles to the gallon with gas costing you $2 a gallon.
Now if you went to Texas deep down in the Rio Grande Valley at Mission where it is warm you would have to cruise out of Galveston which is way north (400 miles) so your total miles down and back including cruising would be 3000 with a fuel cost of $600.
Of course if you went down to the Mission Texas area you could do your cruise on the way down there or when going back north which would save you an 800 mile round trip. Texas is a big state. Remember, it is 400 miles up to Galveston if you are already down in the Mission Texas area.
If you would decide on Arizona then Yuma is your best bet. You could then cruise out of San Diego. The total miles in that case would be 4000 with a fuel cost of $800.
Now Orlando is sort of the breakpoint in Florida where above that it is a little bit colder and below that it becomes much warmer so you would have to adjust your location in Florida based on whether you want toasty warm all the time or you can put up with some chilly mornings farther north where your camping cost would be much cheaper.
Of course you're camping cost in Florida will be a lot higher than Arizona or Texas but if you look around carefully there are deals especially if you can stay farther north. And the cruise opportunities out of Florida are vastly better than Galveston or San Diego.
I hope this helps you a bit with your decision making process. And half the fun is in the planning they say.

RE: 1993 Travelaire 454 chev p30 low power
My first guess would tend to be a blocked exhaust system. But with such low mileage I would really wonder about that.
However I am really puzzled about your high gas mileage. The best I seem to do with a similar engine is 6.5 average which with your Imperial gallons would translate to about 7.8 miles per gallon.
Or conversely you're 17.5 miles per gallon adjusted for gallons here in the U.S. would be 14 miles per gallon. That is so far above normal as to be totally bizarre.
As for it running hot, on my engine the sensor for the temperature gauge on the dash is in the left head between a couple of cylinders. Right on the head next to an exhaust manifold is the hottest place in the water jacket so normally you would see a high reading on the dash gauge. However some people claim that not to be true. But for me it is. And I'm running an Auto Meter after market sensor and gage. They still give a hot reading. I see 235 or 240 F quite often but in a pressurized system that isn't all that high.
It sure we'll be interested in seeing what your problem turns out to be with the low power.

RE: hwy 78 between El Centro,CA and I-10
If you don't mind a two lane road with occasional narrow shoulders and drop off into deep rock filled gulleys it's a good way to go. You'll likely see lots of RVs along the way. And some beautiful huge sand dunes soon after leaving the El Centro area. We run it all the time but just for variety will occasionally route thru Yuma.

RE: myscenicdrives.com?
Why abandon Street & Trips? Nothing else comes even remotely close to it for many features. I plan on using it for years into the future. Continue to use it for what it does very well and rely on some mapping App or whatever for up to date routing if necessary.

RE: Solar Panel Tariff Upheld
Since China and Taiwan same to be able to under cut our manufacturing costs on everything then logically shouldn't there be tarrifs on all products coming into this country from over there?

RE: CDN snowbird advisory....
Everytime I get reading about the US / Canadian border it just brings up images of those World War II movies where they are going down the aisle of the train asking for peoples papers.
Is all that C**p really necessary?